Stop-work meetings at port today

Press, 26 July 1989, Page 9

Stop-work meetings at port today

Further stop-work meetings will be held by watersiders at Lyttelton today to brief members on the award talks. Work was suspended at the port on Monday when union members failed to return to work after an early morning stop-work meeting. That meeting was adjourned to 7 a.m. yesterday. Union members held two meetings during the day and decided to adjourn to a further meeting this morning. The secretary of the Lyttelton branch of the Waterfront Workers’ Union, Mr Warren Collins, said members had a lot of information to digest. Watersiders had gone back to work between 10 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. yesterday but there was still a lot to discuss, Mr Collins said. “Our men are under a fair bit of stress with the waterfront reforms and their families are being affected by it as well.” Mr Collins said union members in Mount Maunganui had been sent letters from employers saying what employment structures they wanted to see brought in when the Waterfront Industry Commission is abolished on September 30. This had created uncertainty and stress, he said. "Nobody is quite sure what is going to happen in October. “The members are wild and they are starting to get irate. It wouldn’t take much to make them take some form of direct action.” Mr Collins said todaay’s meeting could be long. “It’s up to the members how long it goes but we have still got a lot of motions and information to go through.”